7 Sensational Watches Introduced At Dubai Watch Week 2016

Dubai Watch Week just closed the sun-soaked doors of its 2016 edition during which much of the watch world (either vicariously or personally) enjoyed discovering new watches, interesting opinions, the culture of Dubai, the United Arab Emirates’ fastest growing city, and the immense hospitality of Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, who staged the incredible show.

We’ll come back to more on the show itself in a follow-up post; for now please enjoy these 7 outstanding new watches launched during the 2016 edition of Dubai Watch Week.

The DIFC is a leading financial hub for the Middle East, but the urban district is also home to a great number of art galleries, top-tier hotels, and restaurants. The Gate Building is the epicenter of this attractive complex as well as the first structure of the DIFC.

True to Romain Jerome’s own special style, which often pays tribute to a person, place, or event using parts of its “DNA,” the brand used several original screws from the Gate Building to design and create an exclusive collection of seven timepieces called DIFC-DNA, which were commissioned by Sir Mohammed Abdulmagied Seddiqi.

Romain Jerome DIFC-DNA

The RJ Skylab model with its airy skeletonized structure was perfect as the base to go from. Its rusted steel bezel – perhaps the first element to put Romain Jerome on the horological map – adds a great deal of masculinity to this watch. Purple accents on the dial tie Dubai Watch Week’s corporate colors into the edition.

Also marking the start of Emmanuel Bouchet’s official collaboration with Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons in the UAE, this variation on Bouchet’s Complication One incorporates stark
contrasting colors with the titanium case and grey lacquer dial with green elements in the lever escapement subassembly.

H. Moser & Cie. Venturer XL Concept Dubai Edition

The Moser “concept” series sees almost all of the indications removed from the dial so that the observer can really just focus on the color of it rather than be distracted by the indications. In this case the design is Moser’s own fumé style of graduated dial using ice blue and white blending into each other. The result is fascinating.

H. Moser & Cie Venturer XL Concept Dubai Edition

H. Moser & Cie Venturer XL Concept Dubai Edition

This watch marks a first “concept” dial in the Venturer line, and here the practical non-existence of a bezel opens the dial up even further than usual, enticing the eye right down into its depths.

HYT Skull Axl Rose

This watch is not specifically a limited edition for Dubai, but it is a very special limited edition from HYT that was launched during Dubai Watch Week: this is the long-awaited Skull Axl Rose, which was initiated and designed by Guns ‘n’ Roses frontman Axl Rose.

HYT Skull Axl Rose on the wrist

I love the rock-and-roll look of this timepiece, which is based on HYT’s Skull. It is housed in a 51 mm black DLC-coated titanium case with a micro-blasted finish.

HYT Skull Axl Rose

Looking through the display back of the HYT Skull Axl Rose rewards the observer with a view of the Guns ‘n’ Roses logo and Axl Rose’s signature on the crystal

The biggest part of Rose’s design revolves around the emblematic HYT skull made of 256 layers of Neuchâtel Damascus steel coated with a blue PVD treatment creating an unusually vivid hue with fine clous de Paris engraving on the silver part of the dial around the skull. Under a loupe these look like studs.

MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual purple dial

The whole character of the perpetual calendar created by Maximilian Büsser and his friends – in particular Irish movement designer Stephen McDonnell – is condensed in that dial where the full calendar complication is visible on top of the fully integrated movement’s main plate, covered only by the minimalist subdial rings displaying the calendar indications. Legacy Machine Perpetual took the award for Best Calendar Watch at the recent Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG).

MCT Sequential One S110 Vantablack

What characterizes this new version of MCT’s interesting Sequential One watch is the premier use of the blackest material ever produced by humankind in a wristwatch: Vantablack.

MCT Sequential One S110 Vantablack

Vantablack is composed of carbon nanotubes each measuring one-millionth of a millimeter capable of absorbing 99.965 percent of the light they receive. This material caught the eye of artist Anish Kapoor, who collaborated with MCT to utilize it in an interesting way.

MCT Sequential One S110 Vantablack

“It’s the blackest material in the universe after a black hole; a physical object that is impossible to see,” the artist said by way of press release.

MCT Sequential One S110 Vantablack

The result of its application here is that the visible movement appears to be suspended in air.

Dubai Watch Week isn’t just about watches, it’s also about sharing pleasant and constructive moments with friends: in this instance Marc André Deschoux, editor-in-chief of TheWATCHES.tv (left) and Paul O’Neil, editor-in-chief of Worldtempus

Bulgari Carillon Tourbillon in titanium

The original pink gold version of this wristwatch was very beautiful, but also quite heavy. The new titanium version introduced during Dubai Watch Week shows that Bulgari has learned a lot from making the world’s thinnest minute repeater, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève-preselected Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater, whose slim 6.85 mm titanium case beautifully carries the sound of the gongs inside.

Bulgari Carillon Minute Repeater Tourbillon in titanium

Unlike the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater, which hides its mechanics, the Carillon Tourbillon puts its sonorous gears, levers, and gongs on display – and its new titanium case ensures that the sound is better than ever.

Thank you, John, the Burj Khalifa does not fail to impress no matter how often I see it. The colourful light shows that run all over the building each night are impressive, but I liked the way the spotlights highlighted this shot. It really is a building that just makes you feel that James Bond will parachute off any minute.

I should also mention that was just a quick iPhone shot. When the subject is as impressive is this the type of camera doesn’t matter.

Some really great watches, the MCT stands out for me with the Vantablack material. Watching the hour and minute switch suspended against the black hole of the back dial must be cool. I think the Legacy Perpetual would look good in any color and another iteration of the HYT skull motif is a bit overdone at this point. If Moser continues down this path I expect the next offering to have a totally empty dial. They can call it the Moser Time Abstract (Heck, that’s not too far fetched, look at the Haldimann H9). The skeletonization is nicely done on the RJ, but not to be crude, that bezel looks like it was dipped in you know what.

[…] particular, those brands with new timepieces launching at the show (see 7 Sensational Watches Introduced At Dubai Watch Week 2016) used this opportunity to provide some backdrop and explanation in the intimate […]